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Arizona and Japanese American History:
The World War II Colorado River
Relocation Center
Thomas Fujita-Rony
While research on Asian Americans has typically been directed t
port cities like San Francisco and New York City, the Southw
has long been important for Asian Americans. For instance, earl
nese American and Japanese American communities are known t
formed in Arizona, creating pioneer sites of community settlem
contributing to the history and diversity of the area. However, A
significance for the growth of Asian America has not been only a
tion for permanent settlement, but also as a place and space in t
regional economy of the U.S. West. Chinese Americans and J
Americans who settled in Arizona in the late nineteenth and ear
tieth century were a segment of a larger pool of Asian American
that circulated throughout the region in search of work, wh
agriculture, on the railroads, or in other industries that domina
emerging regional economy.1
In this article, I will undertake an analysis of one Asian Am
community that sprang up in Arizona in the early 1940s as a
World War II: the War Relocation Authority camp on the C
River Indian Tribes Reservation, commonly known among t
nese Americans who resided there as "Poston." During World
thousands of Japanese Americans from California, along with a
number of Japanese Americans from Arizona, were sent to the
River Relocation Center. The site became the third largest "
Arizona during that time.2
Despite its brief history, the Colorado River Relocation Center
vides us with an opportunity to assess how people's participation
regional economy of the Southwest was shaped by federal interv
as well as by race and ethnicity. In addition, these issues speak t
topics concerning Arizona's economic development during W
II, as well as offering us an additional avenue to consider the rel
Thomas Fujita-Rony is assistant professor in the Department of Histo
California State University, Fullerton.
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ship of Arizona to its neighbor to the west, California. Reflecting on
this history allows a more expansive view of how community formation
was affected by, and had an effect upon, this part of the Southwest.
Hence, although the Arizona residence of most Japanese Americans at
the Colorado River Relocation Center was transitory, it demonstrates
that the relationship of Asian Americans to a particular place is not deter-
mined solely by permanent stability. For the Japanese Americans who
were incarcerated at the Colorado River Relocation Center, this Arizona
experience would have continued resonance, even several decades after
their World War II experiences.
Japanese Americans and the U.S. West
before World War II
At the close of the nineteenth century, the population
ers in the United States consisted primarily of young
the 1900 census, 24,326 Japanese were listed, with
only 985 females. By 1910, the community's total num
tripled, to 72,157. The population further increa
the 1920 census, of whom 72,707 were men or boy
women or girls. Over the next two decades, gender br
relatively more equitable, with the 1930 total of
81,771 males and 57,063 females, decreasing slightl
sus to 126,947 for the whole group, of which 71,9
54,980 were females. While the overwhelming majorit
tion lived in the West, mainly in the states of Califor
Washington, Arizona emerged as another destinati
typically after an initial stop on the West Coast. T
population was not a large one, however. In 1900, t
Japanese Americans in Arizona, and by 1940, these
gone up to 632 residents, of whom 220 were immigra
U.S. -born, with a gender breakdown of 354 men
women or girls.3
In the different sites where they migrated or settled
cans made significant contributions to the local econo
participated. Many Japanese immigrants possessed ext
of either fishing or agriculture from their former co
In particular, they came equipped with a backgroun
sive farming methods, an expertise necessitated by th
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land in that small and mountainous country, a condition which was
exacerbated by high population densities. This knowledge base allowed
Japanese immigrants to farm successfully the often marginal lands to
which they were generally restricted. By utilizing lands that were seen as
too difficult to work, or as not being economically viable due to limited
acreage or other characteristics, they were able to gain a foothold in the
local economy and even succeed in some cases. Another tactic Japa-
nese Americans frequently utilized to deal with the discrimination they
encountered was the organization of vertical linkages from producer to
wholesaler to retailer in a select number of crops, such as in celery and
strawberries. They also opened small urban businesses, especially in the
service and retail sectors.4
The traveling laborers, or dekasegi, who remained in the United States
became irnin, immigrants, and the community gradually changed from
one of Japanese in America to one of Japanese Americans. As immigrants
rather than sojourners, they began to build a more permanent life in
America, looking toward a future in the United States. The choice to
settle was made in the context of a deliberate and comprehensive federal
immigration restriction on nationality after nationality of Asian immi-
grants that began with the exclusion of Chinese laborers in 1882. This
was followed by the exclusion of Japanese male laborers in 1907 through
the "Gentleman's Agreement," the exclusion of virtually all other Asian
migrants with the exception of those living in U.S. possessions in 1917,
the near total ban on all Asian immigration with the exception of Fili-
pina/os in 1924, and the closing of the final loophole in the ban with
the exclusion of Filipina/os in 1934 as part of the Tydings-McDuffie
Act. The 1907 Gentleman's Agreement, however, contained a loophole.
Under it, the children, wives, and parents of Japanese already resident
in the United States could continue to enter. Between 1908, when the
agreement became effective, and 1924, when immigration from Japan
was for all purposes barred with the passage of the National Origins
Act, a sizable number of Japanese emigrants, especially women, came
to the United States. It was in this period that married couples became
an increasingly important part of the community.5
Few of the men who stayed in the United States chose non- Japanese
partners, most instead either finding a mate within the immigrant com-
munity or, quite commonly, sending for one from Japan. This was the
major factor in the increase in the numbers of women coming from
Japan from 1908 to 1921; many were so-called picture brides, coming
to join men with whom they had exchanged photographs but whom
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they had never met, in arranged marriages. This practice was begun in
recognition of the fact that since marriages in rural Japan were for the
most part arranged by the respective families, the presence of the immi-
grant groom during the arrangements was not required. This drasti-
cally reduced the expense involved, as the need to purchase a roundtrip
trans-Pacific ticket for the groom was eliminated. As a consequence of
these marriages, children began to be born, and the permanence of the
community was assured. This can be seen in the community's ubiquitous
usage of the terms Issei, or first generation, and Nisei, or second genera-
tion, referring to the U.S. -born children of the immigrant Issei.6
For Japanese Americans, citizenship was a crucial legal difference
between the generations. In spite of decades of tenacious legal struggles,
Japanese Americans, like all other Asians prior to World War II, were
unsuccessful in their attempts to gain naturalization rights, and thus
virtually none of the immigrant generation had access to the franchise.
This meant that unlike their counterparts who came from Europe, Japa-
nese immigrants had no voice in electoral politics, and open opposi-
tion to legal and administrative discrimination could be fought only
in the courts, an expensive and usually futile process. The immigrant
generation's last hopes were extinguished with the Ozawa case of 1922,
decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the government position that
no matter how assimilated, Japanese were aliens ineligible for citizen-
ship.7 As aliens ineligible to become citizens, Japanese Americans were
legally denied the right to own or lease land. In 1913, a so-called alien
land law was passed in California, and Arizona followed suit in 1921,
preventing Japanese workers from becoming owners or lessees of land.8
Just a few decades later, after the United States declared war against
Japan, the lives of Japanese Americans would change even more dramati-
cally as the majority of Japanese Americans in the U.S. West would be
sent to relocation centers.
The War and Japanese Americans
Immediately after the outbreak of war, German, Italian, and Japanes
foreign nationals who were identified as potential security risks
swept up by the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
list of immigrants and other nationals from Japan constituted virtu
all who had been leaders of any kind of organization or event ha
to do with Japan, Japanese culture, or Japanese national interests. T
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214 ^ Journal of the Southwest
to their homes. After processing, they were organized into groups and
sent on for confinement at a temporary regional assembly center run by
the army. A minority of the excluded bypassed this intermediate stop
at an assembly center and went directly to one of the more permanent
relocation centers where they would be confined for the indeterminate
length of their detention. By the end of October 1942, the army had
completed its aim of incarcerating virtually every person of Japanese
ancestry on the Pacific Coast as a security risk.13
As soon as the initial construction of the civilian-run relocation cen-
ters located away from the coast was accomplished, incarcerated Japa-
nese Americans were sent under guard to them. The ten camps, each at
the center of its respective relocation project, were built in isolated parts
of the interior of the United States: Gila River and Colorado River, or
"Poston," in Arizona; Tule Lake and Manzanar in California; Rohwer
and Jerome in Arkansas; Central Utah, or "Topaz," in Utah; Heart
Mountain in Wyoming; Minidoka in Idaho; and Granada, or "Amache,"
in Colorado. According to figures from the War Relocation Author-
ity, Arizona had the most evacuees with 31,162 residents in the Colo-
rado River and Gila River center, followed by California with 28,835
at Tule Lake and Manzanar, and Arkansas with 16,972 at Jerome and
Rohwer. Heart Mountain in Wyoming held the fourth highest num-
ber with 10,767, after which came Minidoka in Idaho with 9,397 and
Central Utah in Utah with 8,130. The smallest center was in Colorado
at Granada, with 7,318 residents. The army maintained watch over the
residents around the camps' perimeters and were available to the War
Relocation Authority (WRA) in the event of an emergency.14
In Arizona, Japanese Americans in the area of Phoenix were sent
to the Gila River or Colorado River Relocation Centers while those
from other sites were limited to restricted areas.15 Both of the Arizona
facilities were located on Indian reservations. The Gila River Relocation
Center was on the Pima Indian Reservation, close to Phoenix, while the
Colorado River Relocation Center was located on the Colorado River
Indian Tribes Reservation about seventeen miles south of Parker, near
the California border.16
This period was difficult, if not traumatic, for many Japanese Ameri-
cans. As Alexander Leighton, a medical doctor and anthropologist who
worked at the Colorado River Relocation Center remarked, "The future
appears to them as a dark cloud of uncertain but threatening possibili-
ties, and on all hands they perceive that others in America look on them
as dangerous enemies exactly as if they were all nationals of Japan and
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had started the war." Leighton was hired to work as an anthropologist
at the Colorado River Relocation Center, but he was also a member
of the Naval Reserve, serving in their Medical Corps, and thus liter-
ally embodied one of the many intersections between the civilian and
military spheres at the relocation centers. He himself did not perceive
all Japanese Americans to be "dangerous enemies," and upon his arrival
at the center, he temporarily took on the additional task of serving as a
medical doctor, helping to meet an urgent need.17
Leighton was not alone in his actions, for a few courageous indi-
viduals kept faith with their incarcerated Japanese American neighbors
throughout the war. One was Clara Estelle Breed, who had met many
Japanese Americans through her work at the San Diego Public Library.
Breed was the children's librarian from 1929 to 1945, and when Japa-
nese Americans from the area left for camps, including the Colorado
River Relocation Center, she gave them postcards with postage at the
train station so that they could write to her about their experiences.
"Miss Breed," as her correspondents fondly referred to her, did much
to keep up the spirits of those she knew through her letters. She also
provided material aid, as when she provided an affidavit testifying to the
good character of Chiyomatsu Hirasaki, an immigrant barber and the
father of Tetsuzo "Ted" Hirasaki, with whom she was in regular cor-
respondence throughout his incarceration in Arizona.18
While many Japanese Americans obeyed the government's direc-
tives because they felt that they had little choice, a number of Japanese
Americans directly resisted the exclusion orders in various ways. More
than a dozen and perhaps even more than one hundred decided not
to follow the government's orders.19 Some of the Japanese Americans
who entered the assembly centers did so under protest, and this protest
continued in the relocation centers, occasionally erupting into large-
scale action.20
The War Effort and the West
In moving to the Colorado River Relocation Center, J
cans encountered an area and an economy that was rapid
rized. During World War II, Arizona, like other parts of
underwent dramatic transformation in the national mil
tion effort. In unprecedented developments, federal and
ing were concentrated on focusing the region on th
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because of its proximity to the Pacific Theater. There were significant
changes in the demographics of the region and truly massive growth
in the economic sector. The West's role as a producer of raw materials
and agricultural products continued, but in addition the manufacture
of the tools of war increased, new bases sprang up to train and sup-
port the forces that would be sent overseas, and existing military facili-
ties expanded. Military-related industries, including scientific research
laboratories, emerged in sites around the region, requiring large-scale
construction and the influx of personnel to meet the demands of these
growing industries. Secondary businesses also were founded to accom-
modate the rapid development of new communities around these sites,
including the growth of educational facilities, health-care concerns, and
tourism. A special section, titled "Prelude to Victory," appeared in the
August 7, 1942, edition of the Arizona Republic, with headlines such
as "Central Arizona is Vast Training Field for Warbirds," "Goodyear
Factory Makes Parts for Big Flying Dreadnaughts," "Arizona is Pilot
Training Center for 11 of United Nations," and "Saving of Waste Fats
for Explosives Is Every Woman's Job."21
As an inland area that was considered relatively remote and that was
not densely populated yet was also strategically near the Pacific coast,
Arizona would emerge as a key area for the national mobilization effort.
For example, desert areas in Arizona and southeastern California were
similar to desert conditions in northern Africa, where it was projected
that warfare would take place. As a result, the army in 1942 created
the Desert Training Center/California Arizona Maneuver Area, which
contained about 10,000 square miles of land available for exercises. In
Bellemont, the Navajo Ordnance Depot, which relied heavily on work-
ers from the Navajo and Hopi reservations for its labor supply, became
one of twenty-five throughout the country to store military ammuni-
tion, supplies, and equipment. Other facilities like those at the state
prison in Florence were expanded to house prisoners of war, and some
of these prisoners were also sent as workers to the Navajo Ordnance
Depot. In addition, Arizona quickly became known for its importance
in training pilots and maintaining aircraft. For instance, Davis-Mon-
than Field in Tucson emerged as a primary air force training center for
bomber pilots.22
The resulting economic growth enhanced the fortunes of business-
men like Del Webb. Webb, a prominent leader in the business com-
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munity, had come from California to Arizona and built a construction
business in the 1930s. With the onset of the New Deal, Webb became
involved in a number of projects, ranging from schools and hospitals
to homes, a precursor of the massive building boom that would take
place in Arizona in the next few decades. As an indication of his impor-
tance in Arizona's development, in 1941, Webb built Luke Field, an
enormous military complex that boasted 126 buildings and facilities for
2,500. Webb's company also won the contract to build the first unit of
the Colorado River Relocation Center, which they had ready for the
initial residents in a matter of only three weeks. This feat was no doubt
instrumental in their being awarded the contracts to build the second
and third units of that center as well.23
The creation of the Colorado River Relocation Center in Arizona
thus needs to be placed in the context of both prewar and wartime
developments. From an economic standpoint, the building of the relo-
cation center was not an anomaly but part of the rapid transformation
of the region as a whole. Developing the Colorado River Relocation
Center was a massive undertaking, involving the construction not only
of several hundred buildings, including health and educational facilities,
but also new irrigation canals and roads, as well as the creation of an
administrative apparatus to run it all. "Light frame temporary construc-
tion" characterized the buildings and the barracks, materially changing
the landscape of the area.24 In effect, the U.S. government was creating
a city overnight in a remote area where there were few of the materials
and resources normally used for a construction project of this scale. It
thus required an outpouring of energies, especially to locate goods,
equipment, and personnel to build and staff the facilities.
From this perspective, the growth of the Colorado River Relocation
Center provides us with an avenue to consider the relationship of Ari-
zona to California in both federal and regional contexts. In the build-
ing of the Colorado River Relocation Center, California was a primary
site for securing resources, again underscoring the interdependence
of the economies of Arizona and California and the impact of federal
intervention on the redistribution of materials across state lines. For
instance, authorities from the relocation center secured equipment from
Los Angeles during construction, working with the Los Angeles city
engineer to meet building requirements.25 On an even more direct level,
the movement of thousands of California residents to the "interior"
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in Arizona demonstrates the significant role of Arizona in the nation's
mobilization, a role that would result in the establishment of the Colo-
rado River Relocation Center.
Life in Poston
Upon completion, the Colorado River Relocation Ce
three widely separated "units," Unit I, with roughly
Americans, being twice as large as Units II and III. Unit
the administrative headquarters, the hospital, and othe
port facilities for the incarcerated, as well as staff ho
area outside the Unit I fence contained the army gu
additional staff accommodations. As the Colorado River Relocation
Center was located on lands administered by the Office of Indian Affairs,
it was jointly run by that office from its opening on May 8, 1942, until
the WRA took over full responsibility at the end of 1943. 26
Poston followed a basic federal plan common to all the relocation
centers. The standard unit of every center was the block, designed to
house roughly 250 to 300 people in twelve to fourteen military-style
"theater of operations" tarpapered barracks.27 Also in the block were
buildings housing the communal dining, laundry, and recreational spaces
in addition to two large shower/lavatories, one for men and one for
women. Larger camps had a greater number of blocks and proportion-
ally larger administrative and support facilities. One Japanese American
at Colorado River, Aiko Tanamachi Endo, explained, "Each block was
organized like an army camp, and there would be barracks where the
people would stay. In each block there would be a mess hall and a rec-
reation hall. The recreation hall had a block office at one end where you
took your problems and picked up your mail."28 Every twenty-by-one
hundred-foot barrack was subdivided into around four to six compart-
ments by partitions that stopped short of the roof. Each family was
assigned to a compartment; bachelors were given space in unpartitioned
barracks. The WRA provided cots, mattresses, blankets, and a stove for
heating, but anything beyond these articles had to be provided by the
residents themselves.29
Many Japanese American residents at the Colorado River Relocation
Center have vivid memories about their initial impressions of Arizona.
Aiko Tanamachi Endo recalled about her journey to Poston I, "When
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we arrived in Poston, it was so dusty because they had cleared this area
of all the mesquite trees and the ground was still very soft and dusty
where they had put up the barracks. ... It was an all fenced-in area,
where I could see the soldiers up in the sentry posts."30 Like Endo,
Margie Fujiyama also had memories about the military nature of the
region: "We knew manuevers [sic] were being held, because we could
hear the guns. I think it came from across the Colorado River - in other
words, in California."31
The environment was an ongoing concern among residents, espe-
cially because of the constant construction and the challenges of the
desert climate. Elmer Yamamoto, a lawyer from Los Angeles who was
involved in organizing the relocation center's legal department, recalled
his impressions of his new place of work: "Those were the days when
Poston was still in the process of construction. High winds and dust
storms hiding the rays of the sun, [and] extreme high temperatures
averaging 120 degrees were daily incidents. We sometimes marvel at the
temerity of our clients who trudged down to our office for conferences."
That clients were willing do so may have been due to the tone set by
Yamamoto's supervisor, Theodore Haas, who was the project attorney at
the Colorado River Relocation Center. Haas was clearly an advocate for
Japanese Americans. For example, as he recounted in a December 1943
letter to Philip Glick of the WRA, he had visited the Tule Lake Center
and was highly critical of racist remarks made by one of the employees
he met there.32
Much of the labor necessary to run the relocation center rested on the
shoulders of the Japanese American residents. As Wade Head, project
director, stated in one directive: "You have the big job before you of pre-
paring for schools, organizing your hospitals, organizing a court system,
a law and order system, and the other functions, both governmental and
cultural, which form the basis for an established and systematic commu-
nity life."33 The camps were to be run "as non-profit community enter-
prises," with any profits to go to the workers. Everyone over the age of
sixteen was expected to take part. The monthly pay for the incarcerated
Japanese Americans was extremely low, however - nineteen dollars for
professionals, sixteen dollars for "skilled" workers, and twelve dollars for
"common and semi-skilled labor."34
Creating facilities and running the camp for a population that num-
bered in the thousands was an enormous undertaking. Because the Japa-
nese American population was removed en masse, facilities were needed
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not only for the adult working population, both male and female, but
also for children, young adults, and the elderly. One of the first tasks
was to establish schools, which became an immediate priority because
of the disruption in education that many young people faced. However,
educating the community's youth was only one challenge among many.
Upon being transferred to the relocation center, families typically under-
went tremendous economic loss, losing everything they had built up for
decades. They then were faced with having to start all over again in a
different site without their accustomed resources or networks. Further-
more, family relations themselves were also under stress, as a significant
number of the household heads were held separately, in special Depart-
ment of Justice camps such as the ones at Lordsburg and Santa Fe, New
Mexico, where the immigrant leadership who had been incarcerated
soon after the outbreak of war were imprisoned. Many private household
matters became public, and social hierarchies within the community
became inverted as the younger, American- born Nisei were perceived
by the U.S. government as being more trustworthy and were allocated
more opportunities and resources than their Issei parents.35
Nevertheless, Japanese Americans struggled to make sense of these
catastrophic events which had so altered their lives. In a 1942 report
on the early phases of the relocation center, anthropologist Conrad
M. Arensberg provided his evaluation of community formation: "By
no means all of the evacuees are ready yet to take an active part; by no
means all of them, or even most of them, think of the place as home, or
as anything more than a place of indefinite detention. But they will, in
time, because the ties of adaptation to a new environment are already
being laid down."36 In fact, Japanese Americans had a range of reactions
to imprisonment, ranging from defiant resistance, as in the case of the
six-day political demonstrations in November 1942 over issues includ-
ing self-government and labor concerns, to more informal and localized
levels of resistance, such as the writing of satirical poems criticizing their
treatment by the government.37
In general, many tried to make the best of a difficult situation. Resi-
dents worked hard to create a better living environment for themselves,
through such strategies as building furniture for their compartments
and making food, such as tofu, that was part of the accustomed diet
for many Japanese Americans. In a January 1943 letter to Clara Breed,
Louise Ogawa wrote that she and her parents enjoyed special New Year's
rice cakes, stating that "no one ever dreamed of eating them again."
Japanese Americans adapted to their surroundings in other ways too,
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by creating parks, going fishing in the canals, and renting horses from
Native Americans.38
Along with their everyday strategies for making life more bearable
within the relocation center, Japanese Americans formed the majority of
workers that changed the surrounding land.39 Agriculture-related labor
was a central aspect of the economy of the relocation center, especially
because so many Japanese Americans had a background in farming. In
general, Japanese American workers were instrumental in making the
area more hospitable, and played a pivotal role in both the irrigation and
agricultural development of the land, along with their other duties.40
Shizu Kamei, for instance, recalled "a lot of work like clearing land and
bringing in canals for irrigation and working with the mess halls."41
At Poston, as at other sites around the country, Japanese Americans
directly contributed to the war effort. Although they were initially barred
from doing so on the basis of race, beginning in 1943, young men were
allowed to volunteer for service, and later some were drafted into the
U.S. armed forces, many fighting in the segregated 442nd Regimen-
tal Combat Team. This unit sustained extraordinarily high losses, and
throughout the latter half of the war, residents received regular casualty
listings for husbands, sons, brothers, and other family members, as well
as for friends and fellow community members. Some young Japanese
American women served in the Women's Army Corps or helped the
war effort in civilian sectors, such as in factories. Within the Colorado
River Relocation Center, workers also engaged in other "home front"
activities, such as making camouflage nets under contract.42
Home and Way Station
As a "city," the Colorado River Relocation Center w
way station. Beginning in the first year of the cam
government mobilized to prepare people to move to
that became possible. As Kuni Takahashi noted in a
rial, even as residents were building new lives for
Colorado River Relocation Center, they were soon conf
issue of resettlement.43 The population at the Color
tion Center was continuously in flux because of chang
policies, migration of residents to other states for edu
opportunities, enlistment of community members into
or transfer of residents to other camps. In March 1
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the federal government removed parts of central Arizona, including the
Colorado River and Gila River Relocation Centers as well as Phoenix,
from Western Defense Command Military Area No. 1. As a result, 214
Japanese Americans at the Colorado River Relocation Center had the
option of returning to Phoenix. Furthermore, a leave clearance program,
in which Japanese Americans could apply for jobs outside the camp, was
organized, ensuring that a substantial number of Poston residents would
move to other employment or educational opportunities. Significant
numbers of Japanese Americans were recruited to fill vital gaps in the
labor pool, such as when sugar beet companies offered harvesting work
in Nebraska, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming at wages of five
dollars to ten dollars a day, in sharp contrast to the nineteen dollars per
month paid to professionals within the camps. In addition, residents left
to reunite with family members at other camps, because they were being
repatriated to Japan, or because they were considered more "suspect"
and thus transferred to detention centers like Tule Lake.44
In December 1944, the government rescinded the categorical exclu-
sion of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast, replacing it with
a vastly more selective policy of excluding the very small number of
individuals whom the government felt it had reason to keep out of the
coastal states. The announcement, made on Sunday, December 17, was
followed the next day by the Supreme Court's Endo decision, in which
all nine Justices found the continued incarceration of those whom the
government's own procedures had found loyal, a group which consti-
tuted the overwhelming majority of those in captivity, to be unconsti-
tutional.45 Then, in 1945, as U.S. victories increased and the expenses
of the camps mounted, the federal government began phasing out the
relocation camps, leaving residents who had been displaced from their
former lives with an uncertain future. Many opted to return to Califor-
nia, while others moved to new locations, such as Chicago, Illinois, and
Seabrook, New Jersey.46
In 1946, responsibility for the buildings which made up the Col-
orado River Relocation Center was transferred from the War Assets
Administration to the Department of the Interior. With the departure
of Japanese Americans from the camp, Native Americans received the
facilities. Under the original 1942 memorandum, improvements and
the benefits that resulted from the land's development for the reloca-
tion center would belong to the Native Americans following the war. In
1946, the physical plant and structures were estimated at twelve million
dollars, requiring about $20,000 per month for upkeep. The changes
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in the land also included widespread development of the region. The
irrigation system for the Colorado River Relocation Center had been
built at an estimated cost of more than $670,000, and its main canal
was nearly seventeen miles long. Roads and bridges also had been con-
structed at an estimated expense of more than $900,000, including the
main road from Parker to Camp III, which was more than twenty-one
miles long.47
With the end of World War II, the government debated what to do
with the relocation center. In December 1946, for example, Superinten-
dent C. H. Gensler wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs about
the difficulty of contracting California companies to demolish the build-
ings and to salvage materials. Another major plan was to convert the
buildings into family apartments for use by Native American "colonists."
By July 1947, Gensler inquired whether twenty-five barracks could be
sold for $75.00 per building to Native American veterans. Even more
controversial, given that the area was considered Mohave and Cheme-
huevi land, was the federal government's decision to move other Native
Americans to the reservation. The first group of Native Americans from
outside of the reservation consisted of a number of Hopi families relo-
cated there in September 1945. 48 By August 1954, the acting area direc-
tor reported that 112 Navajo families, 31 Hopi families, 3 Havasupai
families, 3 Fort Mohave families, and 4 Chemehuevi families were resid-
ing on land in the Southern Reserve, and 138 Mohave -Chemehuevi
families were located in the Northern Reserve.49
Conclusion
Today, although many of the original buildings are
have either been demolished or fallen into disrepair
the Colorado River Relocation Center continues. The Poston Memo-
rial Monument was built in 1992, with key support from the Colorado
River Indian Tribes, upon whose land the memorial stands. Another
legacy of this experience has been the widespread cultural production of
different materials about the Poston experience by Japanese American
community members. In her film History and Memory, for instance, Rea
Tajiri traces her family's relationship to this history, including the way
many Japanese Americans chose not to discuss the camps after the end
of the war. The film documents Tajiri's own reclamation of this piece
of her family history and movingly shows the journey to the site of the
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camp, accompanied by a narrative from family members recounting
their memories.50 A number of organizations in Southern California,
such as the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego and the
Japanese American Oral History Project at California State University,
Fullerton, continue to produce oral histories, articles, and other mate-
rials about the experiences of Japanese Americans and others at the
Colorado River Relocation Center. In 1997, the Japanese American
National Museum in Los Angles opened an exhibition entitled, "Dear
Miss Breed: Letters from Camp," which is available at http://www.
janm.org/exhibits/breed/titie.htm. It features some of the museum's
more than 250 pieces of correspondence sent by young Japanese Ameri-
cans to the previously mentioned Clara Breed, an employee at the San
Diego Public Library.51
This history thus helps to give us new perspective on the relationship
of Japanese Americans to Arizona. Typically, the significance of an ethnic
community to a particular site is measured by how long members of that
community have been in a certain place and their pioneering efforts to
establish a long-term residence there. With the case of Japanese Ameri-
cans at the Colorado River Relocation Center, although their stay was
relatively brief, their searing memories of incarceration would not only
last through their lifetimes, but would also be passed down to other
generations within the Japanese American community and be discussed
within national culture as a whole.52
Viewing the significance of the Colorado River Relocation Center
from the Japanese American standpoint also enables us to view Arizona
history in another way, by underscoring the economic implications
of Arizona's participation in the mobilization for World War II.
Tracing the experience of Japanese Americans at the Colorado River
Relocation Center in Arizona provides us with an avenue to analyze the
development of Arizona during this era. The building of a massive city
by the federal government demonstrates the emergence of Arizona as a
national participant in the war effort. Wartime changes would include
the growth of Arizona's agricultural economy and the introduction of
different crops, the creation of a massive irrigation system and physical
infrastructure, and the transformation and consolidation of links between
Arizona and California as the U.S. West as a whole was mobilized for the
war effort. The lifetime of the Colorado River Relocation Center may
have been relatively short, from 1942 to 1945; however, it leaves us with
a valuable tool for more fully considering the relationship of Japanese
Americans to Arizona and offers a legacy which continues today. *
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Notes
Research for this article was conducted at the Pollak Library, C
University, Fullerton; the Carl A. Kroch Library, Division of Rar
Collections, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; the Natio
Washington, D.C.; the Japanese American National Museum,
California; and in particular, the National Archives and Records A
Pacific Region branch in Laguna Niguel, California. I would lik
staff of all of these collections for their help and guidance in my r
1 . For further sources about Asian Americans in Arizona and
see the extensive listing in John P. Rosa and Melody M. Miya
West: A Bibliography of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders i
the West (Tcmpc: Arizona State University, College of Public Pr
For the early migration and settlement of Asian Americans in Ar
Sato, "Before Pearl Harbor: Early Japanese Settlers in Arizon
Arizona History 14, no. 4 (1973): 317-34; Eric Walz, "The Iss
in Maricopa County: Development and Persistence in the Vall
1900-1940," Journal of Arizona History 38, no. 1 (1997): 1-2
Lister and Robert H. Lister, The Chinese of Early Tucson: Histor
from the Tucson Urban Renewal Project (Tucson: University of
1989) and "Chinese Sojourners in Territorial Prescott," Journal o
31, no. 1 (1989): 1-111; Bradford Luckinghzm, Minorities in Phoe
of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American
1860-1992 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994), especially
and Lawrence Michael Fong, "Sojourners and Settlers: The Chin
in Arizona," Journal of Arizona History 21 (Autumn 1980):
Leonard's Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexic
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992) mentions the exist
South Asian American community in Arizona as well.
2. Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell, Florence B. Lord, and Ri
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japa
Relocation Sites (Tucson: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National P
Western Archeological and Conservation Center, 1999), 216.
3. See table 3, "Japanese American Population in Selected Sta
and Continental United States, 1880-1940, and by Nativity a
1940," in Dorothy Swaine Thomas, with the assistance of Char
James Sakoda, The Salvage (Berkeley: University of Californi
575-77: Sato, "Before Pearl Harbor," 320.
4. Suchcng Chan, Asian Americans: An Interpretive History (Boston: Twayne
Publishers, 1991), 37^2.
5. Ibid., 194-96; Thomas, Kikuchi, and Sakoda, The Salvage, 3-15.
6. See Roger Daniels, Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States
since 1850 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988), 126-32; Emma Gee,
"Issei Women," in Emma Gee, ed., Counterpoint: Perspectives on Asian America
(Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1976), 359-64.
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7. Takao Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 (1922) and Yuji Ichioka, Issei:
The World of the First-Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885-1924 (New York:
Free Press, 1988), 214-26. See also, Chan, Asian Americans, 47.
8. Sato, "Before Pearl Harbor," 320-22. Some acts of vigilante terrorism
also occurred; see Brad Melton, "Prelude to War" 3-4, in Brad Melton and
Dean Smith, eds., Arizona Goes to War: The Home Front and the Front Lines
during World War 77 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003). The alien
land statute was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court in Takiguchi v. State
of Arizona, 47 Ariz. 302 (1936), some fourteen years after the U.S. Supreme
Court upheld similar laws in California and Washington.
9. Bob Kumamoto, "The Search for Spies: American Counterintelligence
and the Japanese American Community, 1931-1942," Amerasia Journal 6 ,
no. 2 (1979), 58-72; Peter Irons, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese
American Internment Cases (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993),
19-24. For an overview of German and Italian as well as Japanese enemy alien
internment during World War II, see John Christgau, "Enemies": World War II
Alien Internment (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1985).
10. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
(CWRIC), Personal Justice Denied: The Report of the CWRIC, 2 vols.
(Washington, DC: GPO, 1982-1983; reprint, with a new foreword by Tetsuden
Kashima, Seattle: Civil Liberties Public Education Fund and University of
Washington Press, 1997), 51-60 and 471-77. Hereafter abbreviated as CWRIC,
Personal Justice Denied.
1 1 . CWRIC, Personal Justice Denied, 3. This statement was verified at trial in
Hirabayashi v. United States, 627 F. Supp. 1445 (W.D. Wash. 1986).
12. "National Reclamation Association Bulletin, Special to Our Members:
Re: Establishment of Japanese American Relocation Areas," May 1942, Folder
4.5.2.11, Box 10, RG 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Phoenix
Area Office, Indian Irrigation Service, Irrigation Projects, 1935-1961 (hereafter
RG 75); National Archives and Records Administration Pacific Region (Laguna
Niguel), 1-2 (hereafter NA-LN). CWRIC, Personal Justice Denied, 47-99, 286-
90; see Folder "140 National Defense General," Box 16, RG 75 and Central
Classified files, 1937-1974, NA-LN, for detailed correspondence assessing
different Native American reservations for wartime mobilization.
13. CWRIC, Personal Justice Denied, 93-116; Dorothy Swaine Thomas and
Richard Nishimoto with contributions by Rosalie A. Hankey, James M. Sakoda,
Morton Grodzins, and Frank Miyamoto, The Spoilage (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1946), 13-30.
14. Population numbers calculated from table 1 in War Relocation Authority,
WRA: A Story of Human Conservation (Washington, DC: GPO, 1946), 197;
Thomas and Nishimoto, The Spoilage, 26-27; CWRIC, Personal Justice Denied,
149-84.
15. For further information about the Gila River Relocation Center, see
Folder 4.13.1.7, "Japanese Relocation, Pima Resn.," Box 11, RG 75 Irrigation
Projects, 1935-61, NA-LN; and Folder 4.13.1.8, "W.R.A. 1946 Claim for
Adjustments, Rentals on the Gila River Reservation," Box 11, RG 75, Irrigation
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228 ^ Journal of the Southwest
Metropolis (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989), 136-43. Special section,
"Prelude to Victory," Arizona Republic, 7 August 1942, n.p. The section also
includes a small article entitled, "Japanese 'Hunting Licenses' Are Issued."
22. George W. Howard, "The Desert Training Center/California- Arizona
Maneuver Area," Journal of Arizona History 26, no. 3 (1985): 273-78; John
S. Westerlund, "Bombs from Bellemont: Navajo Ordnance Depot in World War
II," Journal of Arizona History 42 , no. 3 (2001): 321-26; Thomas E. Sheridan,
"The Other Arizona," Journal of the Southwest 36, no. 3 (Autumn 1994): 264;
Jere Franco, "Beyond Reservation Boundaries: Native American Laborers in
World War II," Journal of the Southwest 36, no. 3 (Autumn 1994): 242-54;
John S. Westerlund, "Rommel's Afrika Korps in Northern Arizona: Austrian
Prisoners of War at Navajo Ordnance Depot," Journal of Arizona History 39,
no. 4 (1993): 405-8; Gerald D. Nash, The American West Transformed: The
Impact of the Second World War (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985),
83.
23. Luckingham, Phoenix, 107, 137; Burton et al., Confinement and
Ethnicity, 215-16.
24. WRA, Conference notes, 14 April 1942, and "Memorandum of
Understanding between the Director of the War Relocation Authority and the
Secretary of the Interior," Folder "010. Organization," Box 104, RG 210,
Entry 48 (Subject-Classified General Files, 1942-1946), NA-WDC; "General
Construction Features of Typical Buildings at Colorado River Relocation Center,
Poston, Arizona," Folder, "Colorado River Relocation Center, Poston, AZ,
Appraisal Data Vol. 1 1/2," Box #8, RG 270, Arizona, Real Property Disposal
Case Files, From: Claiborne Flight Academy, To: Colorado River Relocation
Center," NA-LN.
25. John Collier, commissioner, United States Department of the Interior,
Office of Indian Affairs to W. W. Head, administrator, War Relocation Project,
Colorado River Agency, Parker, Arizona (stamped with date April 29, 1942)
and Commissioner to Los Angeles City Council (stamped with date April 29,
1942), Folder "Equipment," Box 42, RG 75, Irrigation District Number Four,
Colorado River Irrigation Project, Records of R H. Rupkey, project engineer,
1938-1945, From: Accidents To: Equipment, NA-LN.
26. Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 215-28. For an early general
history of the Colorado River Relocation Center, see Paul Bailey, City in the Sun:
The Japanese Concentration Camp at Poston, Arizona (Los Angeles: Westernlore
Press, 1971).
27. CWRIC, Personal Justice Denied, 158-59; Alexander H. Leighton, The
Governing of Men: General Principles and Recommendations Based on Experience
at a Japanese Relocation Camp (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945),
55.
28. Aiko Tanamachi Endo, interview with Marsha Bode, O.H. 1750,
Honorable Stephen K. Tamura Orange County Japanese American Oral History
Project, Historical and Cultural Foundation of Orange County Japanese American
Council and California State University, Fullerton, Oral History Program,
15 November 1983, Pollak Library, California State University, Fullerton,
30. (Hereafter the Honorable Stephen K. Tamura Orange County Japanese
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American Oral History Project, Historical and Cultural Foundation of Orange
County Japanese American Council will be abbreviated as HSKTOCJAOHP, the
California State University, Fullerton Oral History Program as CSUF-OHP, and
the Pollak Library, California State University Fullerton as PL-CSUF.)
29. Thomas and Nishimoto, The Spoilage, 29-30.
30. Aiko Tanamachi Endo interview with Marsha Bode, 15 November 1983,
28.
31. Margie Fujiyama, interview with Sue Fowler, O.H. 1383, CSUF-OHP,
11 and 12 January 1973, PL-CSUF, 4.
32. "Legal Department, May 1942-October 1943," Folder "040.3
Operations," Box 108, RG 210, Entry 48 (Subject-Classified General Files
1942-1946), NA-WDC. Theodore H. Haas, project attorney, to Philip M. Glick,
solicitor, 6 December 1943, Folder "65.430#l Tule Lake Jan 1943-March
1944," Box 397 (65.430), RG 210, Entry 16 (Headquarters S-CGF), NA-WDC.
For more on the history of the legal department, see "Legal Department, May
1942-October 1943," and the accompanying memorandum from Theodore
H. Haas, project attorney, to Mr. W. Wade Head, Project Director, Colorado
River Relocation Center, Poston, Arizona, 28 October 1943 in Folder "040.3
Operations," Box 108, RG 210, Entry 48 (Subject- Classified General Files,
1942-1946), NA-WDC.
33. W. Wade Head, project director, "TO ALL RESIDENTS OF POSTON,"
1 August 1942, Folder "010. Organization," Box 104, RG 210, Entry 48
(Subject-Classified General Files, 1942-1946), NA-WDC, 1-2.
34. W. Wade Head, project director, "Circular No. 5, ANNOUNCEMENT
TO ENLISTEES OF THE COLORADO RIVER RELOCATION PROJECT,"
n.d., Folder "060.1 Project Circulars" 1 of 3, Box 110 (Colorado River 060
to 060.3), RG 210, Entry 48 (Subject- Classified General Files, 1942-1946),
NA-WDC.
35. See "Ground Breaking Ceremonies for New School Building Planned,"
The Poston Chronicle, 1 January 1943; John J. Culley, "The Santa Fe Interment
Camp and the Justice Department Program for Enemy Aliens" in Roger Daniels,
Sandra C. Taylor, and Harry H. L. Kitano, eds., Japanese Americans: From
Relocation to Redress, rev. ed. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991),
57-71. For economic losses sustained by Japanese Americans, see Shizu Kamei,
interviewed by Toni Rimel and Masako Hanada, O.H. 1755, HSKTOCJAOHP,
CSUF-OHP, 23 January 1984, PL-CSUF, 71, 77-78, 82; for a discussion of
some changes in family dynamics, see Aiko Tanamachi Endo interview, 29-30;
for the imprisonment of adult men, see Yukiko Furuta, interview with Arthur
A. Hansen and Yasko Gamo, O.H. 1752, HSKTOCJAOHP, CSUF-OHP, 17
June and 6 July 1982, PL-CSUF, 114-17; and for the limited labor options for
Issei, see Furuta interview, 135.
36. Conrad M. Arensberg, "Report on a Developing Community: Poston,
Arizona," Folder "Record Studies" Box 124, RG 210, Entry 48 (Subject-
Classified General Files), NA-WDC 13.
37. See speech to Unit II, Poston, in wake of strike, Nagai Nakaji and
Reverend Mitani, 6 December 1942, Folder "470 Community Government,"
1 of 2, Box 118 (Colorado River 420.3 to 470), RG 210, E48 (S-C GF 1942-
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46), NA-WDC, and Leighton, Governing of Men, 162-210. "That Dammed
Fence," reproduced in Andrew B. Russell, "Arizona Divided," in Melton and
Smith, Arizona Goes to War, 52.
38. Yukiko Furuta interview, 124; Shizu Kamei interview, 75; Louise Ogawa
to Clara Breed, 6 January 1942 (letter dated 1942 but postmarked 1943),
93.75.31 AC, Clara Breed Papers, JANM Archives; Louise Ogawa to Clara
Breed, 27 January 1943, 93.75.31 D, Clara Breed Papers, JANM Archives;
Arensberg, "Report of a Developing Community," 13-14, 25-28.
39. Richard Nishimoto, "Firebreak Gang," Inside an American Concentration
Camp, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, ed. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995),
40-85.
40. For more on irrigation, see Bureau of Sociological Research, "We Came
to the Beginning of the Year (A Brief History of Unit One in Poston - May
through December 1942," Box 2, #3830, KL-CU, 8.
41. Shizu Kamei interview, 75. See also "Graveling of Road Started by
Engineers on Unit 2-3 Highway," The Poston Chronicle, 27 December 1942
and "Over 40 Miles of Canals Constructed by Evacuees," The Poston Chronicle,
9 May 1943.
42. "U.S. Army to Form Nisei Division," The Poston Chronicle, 29 January
1943; "900 in Armed Forces from This Center," The Poston Chronicle, 12
December 1944; "Semi-Annual Report, January 1 to June 30, 1944,"
Department of the Interior, WRA, Folder, "Semi-Annual Reports - WRA
January 1 to June 30, 1944," Box 3 (Semi-Annual Reports 1943 & 1944
. . . ), RG 210, Entry 3 (Washington Office Records Documentary files), NA-
WDC, 14; "Net Workers to Meet with Contractor Sat.," The Poston Chronicle, 6
February 1943; and "Chronicle Reporter Tours Unit III Camouflage Factory,"
The Poston Chronicle, 11 April 1943.
43. "Semi-Annual Report, January 1 to June 30, 1943," WRA, Folder "Semi-
annual Report Jan. 1 to June 30, 1943," Box 2 (History- Engineering Section
June 30, 1943/Semi-annual Reports, 1943), RG 210, Entry 3 (Washington
Office Records Documents by Files), NA-WDC, 1-20; Kuni Takahashi,
"Educational System," The Poston Chronicle, 13 June 1943.
44. Bureau of Sociological Research, "We Came to the Beginning of the
Year," 14; "Second Quarterly Report of the War Relocation Authority, July 1
to September 30 1942," Box 1, #3830, KL-CU, 13; "Nine Families Leave for
Crystal City," The Poston Chronicle, 20 January 1944.
45. "Mass Exclusion Terminated," The Poston Chronicle, 19 December 1944;
CWRIC, Personal Justice Denied, 235-36; Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, 323 U.S.
283.
46. Memorandum from Minoru Okamoto, city manager, to Duncan Mills,
project director, Colorado River Relocation Center, Poston, Arizona, 22 January
1945, Folder "470 Community Government," 2 of 2, Box 118 (Colorado River
420.3 to 470), RG 210, E48 (S-CGF 1942^6), NA-WDC; and Mills' reply, 1
February 1945, Memorandum from Duncan Mills to Minoru Okamoto on "Your
Memorandum of January 22, 1945 Re: Closing of Centers," Colorado River
Relocation Center, Poston, Arizona, Folder "470 Community Government,"
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2 of 2, Box 118 (Colorado River 420.3 to 470), RG 210, E48 (S-CGF), NA-
WDC; "Seabrook Farm's Employment Manager Recruiting Workers on Project,"
The Poston Chronicle, 20 January 1944; Mitziko Sawada, "After the Camps:
Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, and the Resettlement of Japanese Americans,
1944-47," Amerasia Journal 13, no. 2 (1986-87): 117-36; Jacalyn D. Harden,
Double Cross: Japanese Americans in Black and White Chicago (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2003).
47. "Administrator to the Honorable [J. A. Krug], The Secretary of the
Interior," 21 October 1946, Folder "Colorado River Relocation - Poston -
AZ.," Box 8, RG 270, NA-LN Archives; "Memorandum of Understanding,"
NA-WDC, 5; Robert C. Davenport to Mr. Paul C. Williams, 15 October 1946,
Folder "Colorado River Relocation- Poston- AZ," Box 8, RG 270, NA-LN;
"Drainage and Irrigation, Account No. 38," Folder, "Colorado River Relocation,
Poston, AZ, Appraisal Data Vol. II," Box 9, RG 270, NA-LN; "Colorado River
Relocation Center, Poston, Arizona, Fixed Asset Inventory, August 31, 1945,
Roads and Bridges, Account No. 37," Folder, "Colorado River Relocation
Poston, AZ, Appraisal Data Vol. II," Box 9, RG 270, NA-LN.
48. C. H. Gensler, superintendent, to commissioner of Indian affairs,
16 December 1946, 31 December 1946, and 10 July 1947, all in Folder
"120 W.R.A.-Poston (Disposition of Buildings)," Box 64, RG 75, NA-LN;
Document by R. H. Rupkey, 21 June 1954, Folder 4.5.2.10, Colorado River
Gravity Project, Colonization & Planning- General [1 of 2], Box 10, RG 75,
Phoenix Area Office, Irrigation Projects, 1935-61, NA-LN; Dwight Lomayesva,
"The Adaptation of Hopi and Navajo Colonists on the Colorado River Indian
Reservation," M.A. thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 1980, 52-53.
Lomayesva's thesis provides a general history of these developments. See also
Sheridan, "The Other Arizona," 257-58.
49. See L. L. Nelson, acting area director, to commissioner, Bureau of Indian
Affairs, 16 August 1954, Folder, "4.5.2.10 Colorado River Gravity Project,
Colonization & Planning- General [1 of 2]," Box 10, RG 75, Irrigation
Projects, 1935-61, NA-LN. For an insightful work about the relationship of
Japanese American and Native American history in regard to the Colorado
River Relocation Center, see Ruth Y. Okimoto, Sharing a Desert Home: Life on
the Colorado River Indian Reservation, Poston, Arizona, 1942-1945, A Special
Report from News from Native California (Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2001.
50. Frank Iritani, "Internment Camps Revisited, in Nikkei Heritage: National
Japanese American Historical Society XV, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 2003): 16;
History and Memory, written and directed by Rea Tajiri, 32 min., Akiko
Productions (Video Data Bank), 1991, videocassette. For another important
example, see Chizu Omori, "The Life and Times of 'Rabbit in the Moon,'"
in Erica Harth, ed., Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of
Japanese Americans (New York: Palgrave, St. Martin's Press, 2001), 215-28.
51 . For more on the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego, see
its website, www.jahssd.org. The Japanese American Oral History Project, part
of the Oral History Program at California State University Fullerton, has made
several interviews relevant to the Colorado River Relocation Center accessible
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